


The Bizarre Suicide of Ruru-chan

by Anonymous



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Case Fic, Gen, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Investigations, Japanese Culture, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, References to Depression, Suicide, internet culture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 15:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22497994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Ryan and Shane investigate the death and haunting of an internet japanese streamer named Ruru-chan.(WARNING:  This is literally a casefic for a real actual suicide, and depicts some pretty not fun things.  Please do not click this if you're going to be triggered by anything involved, and please don't click it if you know these details are going to stick with you.)
Kudos: 2
Collections: Anonymous





	The Bizarre Suicide of Ruru-chan

This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we investigate the bizarre suicide of Ruru-chan, as part of our ongoing investigation into the question, are ghosts real? This one’s going to be a special treat, because not only are we investigating the existence of, you know, ghouls, but we’re also looking into the circumstances surrounding the relatively recent death that led to this particular ghost. This will be a two part episode combining true crime and supernatural.

SHANE: Oh, we got a fresh one do we? A real hot off the presses haunting?

RYAN: Shane, I’m going to warn you now, this was a child.

SHANE: Oh that’s- that’s not fun at all. My condolences to the family for uh, their loss.

RYAN: I mean it- it seems like it wasn’t much of a loss at all, if the spirit’s still haunting around.

SHANE: I mean, they still died. I don’t think we should, you know, skim over that part.

RYAN: We in fact won’t, do that, at all. Wish we could though, because these details are uh, not fun.

SHANE: Not a party episode for the ghoul boys?

RYAN: Not exactly.

To begin, Ruru-chan, whose real name will not be disclosed in this episode due to privacy reasons, was a 14-year old ‘net idol’, known for her broadcasts on a site called FC2. She lived in the Kansai region of Japan, living happily with her mother and father, although it is reported they were often working, leaving Ruru-chan home alone. On the 24th of November 2013, she jumped off the 13th story of her apartment complex at about 4am, streaming the suicide live on FC2. She reportedly did this to ‘become a legend’. The stream lasted three minutes, and was an abrupt end to what had been the top star on the platform at that time. She was rushed to the hospital, but died less than four hours later, with no further conscious responses. But that would not the be last actions of Ruru-chan, who is now said to haunt the apartment complex where she met her untimely demise. Today we’re going to examine the causes of this event, to try to answer the question, why did Ruru-chan stream her suicide?

The first theory states that Ruru-chan was simply a stressed teenage girl who wanted to be remembered after her death, leading to the broadcast, with no particular instigating factors. However, there are many reasons why this theory doesn’t seem to hold up. Despite reports saying she experienced no bullying, and had a happy home life, her online footprint points to something different. Amongst her normal livestreams of her playing the piano, there were apparently ones where she ran across busy streets and stuff like that. There were also a lot of concerning tweets, which unfortunately I can only get translated by Google.

SHANE: Oh , our old pal google, the most accurate method.

RYAN: Yeah it would be nice if like, someone who could speak the language could weight in on the tweets, there’s a lot of context that seems to be missing. Then again I’m not sure uh, I really want to encourage our fans to go flood this dead girls twitter page.

SHANE: Oh yeah, definitely don’t do that.

RYAN: Yeah please don’t be disrespectful to the, uh,

SHANE: Digital grave, sort of.

RYAN: Yeah, the digital grave of this real 14 year old who killed herself.

SHANE: Seriously, don’t do it.

Some of the tweets seem to be aimed towards her mother, saying “Don’t be angry again” and “Do you still hear your voice? I’m talking as loud as possible.” There are multiple accounts that her mother put a lot of pressure on her to succeed, to study and practice the piano. There are no mentions of a father in the picture, with the exception of a comment noting that her ‘parents’ seemed to work a lot. A lot of the accounts are viewers of the streams speaking on what they saw leading up to the suicide, but there a few sources, such as the news station running her story, which speak to the idea that this suicide was out of nowhere. Again, this is not very supported by any of the first hand details.

The second theory says that she was driven to suicide by a pedofile, who took advantage of her bad home life and hacked her stuff to blackmail her into dying as a kind of erotic art. 

SHANE: Oh that’s, nasty.

RYAN: Yeah. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of content she was uh, already peddling.

SHANE: Erotic death art? This girl is 14 years old.

RYAN: She apparently uh, was an erotic streamer. She streamed stuff like uh, ‘Erotic menhera virgin JC’, which is more or less content directly for pedophiles.

SHANE: What does that word- menhera? What does that mean?

Menhera is a Japanese fashion movement that’s focused on highlighting ‘cuteness that has been tainted by sickness’, specifically that of mental illness. It has a focus on reveal the truth behind japans ‘kawaii culture’, and means to emphasize that mental illness is being ignored when it’s in people who appear ‘too cute to be depressed’. Ruru-chan pandered to this audience, but more specifically to the pedophile community in japan. She posted videos of herself dancing and singing but included videos of her tempting death, running across busy roads and similar daredevil actions. One video involves her with a pink bag over her head, a hole cut out for one of her eyes, as she laughed and at one point starts headbanging. I am unable to translate the audio on this.

SHANE: That’s- kind of discomforting. And you want to sleep where this girl was? 

RYAN: I mean she’s, she was just a kid. Kids do weird shit and she obviously needed some sort of help.

SHANE: Ryan, ghosts are not real, but if they were, she’d think you’re an American pedophile.

RYAN: oh- oh shit that’s actually- oh wow. Crap.

In addition to her livestreams, there is also brief mentions of a pedophile lurking around her school, but when people arrived, he vanished. She seemed concerned about people tracking her, saying on twitter “怖いなーiPhoneのカメラとかハッカーさん達がのぞいてるきがする自意識過剰なのか” which apparently translates to “I’m scared- I’m overly conscious of the hackers looking at the iphone camera.” If she was being stalked by a pedophile who found her from her livestreams, this worry could be justified. Did Ruru-chan livestream her suicide to avoid the pedophiles and the backlash for her actions?

This is the theory that holds the most weight, but there is a more spiritual answer.

The third says Ruru-chan was being plagued by a dark spirit, that used its influences to drive her to her death.

SHANE: That’s uh, a little problematic, aint it? Being like ‘oh no, she was fine, it was just those pesky demons!’, acting like- like she didn’t have all this other stuff going on.

RYAN: well I think it’s mainly that it’s hard to admit that something like this could happen, like, it was being seen by hundreds of people, this whole situation was escalating, and it’s just difficult to swallow that nobody did anything. Like the uh, Kitty Genovese thing.

SHANE: the bystander effect?

RYAN: Yeah, that.

SHANE: You know, they did call the police for her.

RYAN: Whoa wait, they did?

SHANE: Yeah she like, died on the way to a hospital and everything. She was being cradled in a woman’s arms at one point, too.

RYAN: oh that’s- I guess that’s better than the stories make it seem.

SHANE: yeah I’m glad she got some peace. I wish that uh, Ruru-chan had also gotten that.

RYAN: People were yelling in the chat, but nobody seems to think she was reading it.

SHANE: oh that, that hurts, to think she coulda uh, looked down and seen all the support and maybe not done it. Maybe gotten some help, or something.

RYAN: Yeah. There were, uh, also people telling her to do it, baiting her a lot, so maybe it’s best that she uh, had those final moments for herself.

SHANE: oh-yeah.

It is said in Japanese folklore that being possessed by a demon can cause suicide, with the demonic influence leading to the urge itself. In this theory, a Shinigami, such as the demon Mrtyu-mara, possessed Ruru-chan. However, this theory has mainly been crafted by people who were present during Ruru-chan’s death, but do not feel like they contributed, so it feels likely that this theory is more of a religious way to absolve guilt than a legitimate possibility. That said, if a dark force haunted Ruru-chan, it’s subtle influences could last to this day.

There is one final theory, that the whole thing is a hoax, and Ruru-chan didn’t die.

SHANE: It can’t- it cant be a hoax if we’re visiting the place?

RYAN: Exactly! But the possibility has to be debunked.

SHANE: We are attending?? The location?? 

RYAN: I mean, somebody definitely died there, it’s just that some people believe, maybe it wasn’t Ruru-chan.

SHANE: So a completely unrelated girl who committed suicide? Just a random other ghost? That’s uh, gotta be embarrassing.

RYAN: Ruru-chan? Oh my god its such an honor to- oh, uh, hi.

SHANE: just some random other ghost girl, walking about.

RYAN: ahahahaha

BOTH: …

SHANE: god, this sucks

RYAN: yeah it really does, holy crap

This theory says that the whole thing was a hoax, and that Ruru-chan dropped the phone off the building without herself included. This contrasts with reports of the video audio, but since it’s been scrubbed from the internet, a verification is technically impossible. This theory draws attention to the character Ruru-chan made for herself on the livestreams, and places emphasis on the idea that she was playing a character, as opposed to expressing genuine personhood. It has been pointed out that Ruru-chan’s twitter icon is of minky momo, an anime character who has been said to have a ‘curse’, with the final episodes airing when natural disasters occur in japan. They feel like Ruru-chan’s livestream was a shoutout to minky momo’s legend, and the end to the character arc built up by Ruru-chan.

SHANE: Where do they think she is, if she’s alive?

RYAN: In hiding, I guess.

SHANE: She was 14, I don’t really think uh, she had a bunch of hidey holes and burner phones.

RYAN: I mean, if she never lived in the apartment then it wouldn’t be hard for her to hide.

SHANE: I mean, yes, but can’t you, uh. Verify the area the video took place?

RYAN: I’ll be honest, I’m not willing to look at the images long enough for that.

SHANE: That’s probably for the best.

Regardless of what happened to Ruru-chan, her story is carried on to this day. The Japanese internet pop band “Shinsei Kamattechan” released the song “Ruru's Suicide Show on a Livestream”, pushing her story into more public interest. There’s also still active forums dedicated to her, by people who were once, and still are, her biggest fans. Her final twitter post gets personal well wishes, and remarks on what’s happened since she died. No matter what, it’s very clear she meant a lot to many people. It can only be hoped that the legacy she’s left behind was what she wanted. But unfortunately, the bizarre suicide of Ruru-chan remains without clear explanation, leaving this case…unsolved.

SHANE: I’m surprised this uh, got your goat as much as it did, Ryan. It seems a bit darker than our norm.

RYAN: I just was reading about it, and I felt like, hey, maybe she wanted to become a legend, and maybe I can do a part in that.

SHANE: Publicity in her honor?

RYAN: I guess, and there really is a lot about the story that’s not uh, public knowledge. Even her regular uh, non-pedophilic streams were almost completely scrubbed from the internet. It seems harsh to do that to someone who wanted to be remembered so badly.

SHANE: I suppose that’s fair. Well, Ruru-chan, I hope you got what you wanted.

RYAN: And I hope she knows about this before throwing stuff at us.

SHANE: I don’t think we’re that popular in japan that uh, deceased 14-year-old Japanese girls know about us.

RYAN: Here’s to hoping, then.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll open up on anon and say Ruru-chan's story really stuck with me. I was up to similar bad decisions at about the same time. There's something really weighty at relating to her, all these years later, when i've changed so much from who I was. It's a shame that she'll never have the chance to change. Ruru-chan, this is for you. I can't honor what you'd want if you were alive, but I can honor what you wanted before you died. 
> 
> Become a legend. Become beloved.
> 
> I hope if this story does anything, it'll remind people to not diminish the person-hood of kids. I hope if it does anything, it reminds someone to check in on somebody who's going through a rough time.


End file.
